Chicago To Consider City-Wide Wireless Network

Mitchell writes "Chicago Indymedia reports on developments pertaining to community internet in Chicago. A press release from the Center for Neighborhood Technology reports that the city's Finance Committee has commissioned a study to explore the possibility of low-cost wireless internet across the city of Chicago, and reserve Chicago's right to establish a citywide Wi-Fi network. It could run into efforts underway now in the state capital by Big Telecom to shut out muni Internet in Illinois." Several readers also pointed to the Chicago Tribune's story on this possibility, including efforts to head off regulation which would make municipal Wi-Fi difficult.

Comments

Just watch..

[MoOsEb0y]

in three days, we'll read a story about how the Illinois legislature is banning municipal wireless.

Gotta love that

[Sparr0]

grandfather clause. It is sad that they have to rush this to implementation just to beat the legislation out the door.

Re:is city-wide wireless too costly?

[hanshotfirst]

I don't see this stifling any competition, but encouraging it. The City has to buy their bandwidth from somebody, right? And set up the hotspots? No city is going to form a bureau of wi-fi-management (ok, maybe they would) -- they'll contract the whole thing to the lowest bidder. Hence, competition among network suppliers.

Who are the network suppliers? Oh yeah, the big telco's. So they still get their money. They just don't get to set profit margins as high because they have to be low bidder to get the contract. Would this make an interesting alternative to legislating price controls? The city is simply a big customer, and market forces rule.

As a staunch Libertarian...

[Slur]

... I wholeheartedly support plans by cities to deploy their own wireless networks. Especially those cities and counties that private companies have failed to adequately supply. The market has become too uptight and created an artificial scarcity, and it needs competition from municipalities to shake it out of its complacency.

The new regulations outlawing such measures are completely brain-dead, and do harm to the competitive environment while espousing "libertarian" values. Hell, even the venerable CATO Institute has become nothing more than a shill for corporations, and lost its ability to be objective and realistic.

From my perspective as a staunch Libertarian it is becoming increasingly clear that mixed economies provide the best soil for healthy competition, and that they do a better job of supporting the human and technological infrastructure required to foster a healthy economy.

Now, let the real competition begin!